Ex

Ex was fairly terrible at Soul Smoking. He was brilliant at detecting the presence of souls, could use the Ancestral Incense with his delicate paws, but could not bring himself to trap the soul after he smoked it. He would often lose it, releasing it into the air to dissipate on the wind, or sometimes would keep it in his for a short while, shuddering as he lived and died a life that wasn't his. The Guardian, his tutor, did not empathize with him; she found she could guard her Charges easier when they were trapped in glass.

The pivotal moment came when Ex made his first visit to the Starwood Strand. His tutor correctly predicted that many dragon souls were trapped by the Arcanic nature of the Strand, following lore that the Strand unravelled travelers and "embraced them in the infinite". Despite the beauty of the Strand, Ex found it to be sentient... and hungry. Many souls, dragon and Beastclan and souls so old as to not remember what they had been, were embedded in the very air, trapped for eternity. It was then that Ex made it his mission to offer those souls a release.

Now, he makes periodic trips from the coast of the Starfall Isles to the Starwood Strand and back. He is a nomad, and lives on the hospitality of clans who believe he keeps bad luck away. In the Strand, he smokes as many souls as his fragile body can hold, enduring life after life and death after death parading through his memory. He travels to the coast and breathes them out, releasing them from their incarceration. Fellow Soul Smokers despise him, as he minimizes their business opportunities; as well, they are jealous of his ability to hold souls in his body for such a long period of time.